


Discovery of Quantum

by ladyphlogiston



Series: Quantum of Luna [1]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Friendship, Gen, nerdfic, theories of magic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-30
Updated: 2018-04-30
Packaged: 2019-04-30 07:17:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,238
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14491698
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ladyphlogiston/pseuds/ladyphlogiston
Summary: Once there were two young witches with very different ways of thinking. Let there be light...





	Discovery of Quantum

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to sophibug for the structure, and to my husband for beta'ing

**Light is a particle**

“Square the x, divide by 217, add the Emrys Constant…”

“A Seked Enfolding would fit better,” came a soft voice from behind her.

Hermione lifted her head, startled. She had been so focused on her Arithmancy project that she hadn't realized anyone was near her.

“Excuse me?” she asked.

“A Seked Enfolding would fit better,” Luna repeated. She came forward and ran her finger down a matrix of alchemical symbols in Hermione's notes.

Hermione rolled her eyes. Luna seemed harmless enough, but her constant references to mythical creatures, secret conspiracies, and impossible theories grated on Hermione's nerves.

“I've never heard of a Seked Enfolding. This is NEWT level Arithmancy,” Hermione replied. Her project was more complex than anyone else's in her sixth year class, and she was delighted to have such an advanced problem to tackle.

“Merlinic Analysis doesn't account for the rhythm of magic,” Luna said seriously. “Magic flowers and fruits and flowers again. You have to listen to the music of it.”  
  
Hermione stared at Luna in disbelief. “Thank you, Luna,” she finally managed.

Luna’s face lit up. “You're welcome.”

Hermione watched her leave, and shook her head. She got back to her analysis.

  
  
**Light is a wave**

_“A few Arithmancers have had great Success with the Methods of Hipparchus, by fitting the Properties of the Spell or Ritual they are studying to a great Circle and constructing a Table of Chords accordingly. The ancient Egyptian Wizards used a primitive Form of these Methods to determine the Seked and its Folding, used in the Creation of their Pyramids. The Methods of Hipparchus are said to be especially useful when examining Magic with a patterned or cyclical Element, and indeed, some Arithmancers claim that any Magical event can be described with a sufficiently complex Array of Patterns. Other prominent Arithmancers express Skepticism…”_

Hermione frowned. Hadn't Luna said something, a week before, about a Seked Enfolding and repeating patterns? Could this possibly be related?

She shook her head and kept reading.

That evening, Hermione was quieter than usual. Even while working on her homework, she tended to break off to stare into space and frown.

“Is something bothering you, Hermione?” Ron finally asked, when she hadn't seemed to hear his suggestion that they play Gobstones instead of finishing their Herbology essays.

“If it's my potions book again, you've already said your piece, so you might as well leave well enough alone,” Harry put in defensively.

Hermione rolled her eyes. “Not everything is about you, Harry.”

“Well, what is it then?” Harry demanded.

“There's a piece of Arithmantical theory that I read today, with potentially important ramifications for a project I've been working on. The odd thing is that Luna said something last week which may have been related to it.”

“You could ask her.”

“I don't want to ask her!” Hermione snapped. “I will research it further if it becomes appropriate, naturally. I'm perfectly capable of looking it up myself.”

“That's our Hermione,” Ron said, reaching over to punch her arm gently. “Who cares what Loony thinks anyway? Wandering around barefoot like that.”  
  
“People hide her shoes,” Harry muttered.

Ron leaned over. “What's that, mate?”

“People hide her shoes. She told me so, last year.”

Hermione narrowed her eyes. School was important, and not having proper clothing was not conducive to a proper learning environment.

  
  
**Light is both a wave and a particle**

“Why are we spending so much time in the library?” moaned Ron. He had spent the last half hour alternating between scribbling halfheartedly on his Charms homework and complaining about doing it in the library instead of their common room, where the chairs were comfortable, the room was warm from the fire, and he had a myriad of friends to talk to instead of focusing on his work.

“Because I invited Luna to join us. I rewrote our study schedule so that she could join us, created a version for her so that she knows how to make the best use of her time with us, and told her to come today,” Hermione explained primly.

Ron looked bewildered. “Why would you invite her?”

“I invited her because bullying is unjust and inappropriate behavior, and I believe she will benefit from studying with us.”

Ron rolled his eyes.

Harry looked around. “She isn't here, though,” he pointed out.

Hermione sighed. She'd put quite a lot of thought into the best way to help Luna, and it frustrated her that Luna had not come. She put away her completed Potions essay (Luna was competent enough in wanded magic, but Hermione thought she probably struggled in Potions, and had planned to use this opportunity to give Luna a few pointers in that subject) and pulled out her Arithmancy project.

She stacked the two Arithmancy references she'd brought on the table, and unrolled her parchment to find the place where she'd gotten stuck. No matter what she tried, she hadn't gotten the last clause to resolve into a usable equation.

Hermione reached for one of her books, and paused. There were now three books in the stack.

Puzzled, Hermione picked them up. She'd brought _Static and Dynamic Magicks_ and _Conceptual Spellcasting_ with her, but _Magical Vibrations_ , by Pandora Lovegood, had certainly not been there a minute ago.

Hermione opened the book, expecting to see the usual nonsensical theories, perhaps explaining how Nargles influence magic, as if cryptozoology had any place in proper magical analysis. To her surprise, the theory inside seemed surprisingly robust. The equations were unfamiliar, but they looked a bit similar to the one example of the Hipparchus methods she'd seen, so perhaps it was worth a try.

Half an hour later, Hermione was bringing her analysis to a triumphant conclusion, when she became aware of a presence over her shoulder.

Hermione looked up, to see Luna just inches away, avidly reading her work as she completed it. Luna calmly finished reading what Hermione had written, and then turned her head to look at Hermione. Her eyes were sparkling, and she looked more focused than usual.

“I'm glad you found its proper shape, Hermione Granger. Though you switched a light value, here,” Luna said, pointing to an equation two-thirds of the way down the page.

Hermione studied the line. “You're right, I did. I'll fix it.”

Luna nodded.

“Is this your book, Luna?” Hermione asked, holding up _Magical Vibrations_.

“Yes. My mother wrote it. I thought it would like you.”

Hermione wasn't sure what to say to that. “Thank you for leaving it for me.”

Luna didn't seem to be listening anymore. She was smiling gently and looking curiously at the nearest bookshelf, though she hadn't moved away from the table.

Hermione remembered her earlier resolution. “Have you finished your Potions essay, Luna? I brought one of my favorite Potions references, if you would like to work on it.”

Luna drifted away, still smiling.

  
  
**Light is neither a wave nor a particle**

“That pig-headed, pea-brained, idiotic, reckless Boy!” Hermione muttered under her breath as she stormed her way to the Room of Requirement.

Harry had tried a spell on Ron. He hadn't known what it did, or who made it, or even how to counter it. The fact that Ron was fine in no way mitigated Hermione's anger with his stupidity.

Hermione was disappointed to see that the Room already had a visible door. She wanted to scream and blow things up, and she couldn't do that with someone else there. She was about to turn away and find an empty classroom to use, but out of curiosity she decided to try the door.

It opened on a scene of smooth grass under a starlit sky. The Room looked bigger than she had ever seen it (though even the Room had to follow Ganymede’s Laws of Space, she reminded herself, so it couldn't go on forever) and a cool breeze was blowing.

Several yards away, boulders stuck out of the grass to make a rough circle, and Luna was standing on one of them, playing the flute. Her playing reminded Hermione of some of the jazz her uncle liked to play, with its wild melodies and deliberate discordance.

Hermione wasn't at all sure whether she liked it or not, but somehow the wind and the music felt alive to her, and she took several steps closer.

A piano appeared, halfway between Hermione and the stone circle. Hermione wasn't sure whether she or Luna had requested it but she sat down anyway. Hesitantly, she tried a few notes.

Her efforts fit with Luna’s playing better than she thought they would. She tried playing more, scales and arpeggios and half-remembered tunes from her childhood piano lessons. Sometimes what she played sounded all wrong, but most of the time it meshed with Luna’s flute and made an entirely new music.

Luna continued to play, and Hermione relaxed as the memories returned. She focused on the keys before her and the music around her, playing parts of old recital pieces and new melodies as they occurred to her.

The air began to feel heavy with magic, and suddenly there was a thunderclap and the ground shook. Hermione stopped, startled, and looked up in time to see a brilliant red beam of light like an industrial laser lance down from the sky and leave a jagged burned mark across the middle of the stone circle. Then the light vanished and the room was silent.

Luna looked around, clearly puzzled, and stepped down from her boulder. The Room of Requirement changed as she did so. The grass and boulders sank down into smooth floor, the sky contracted and became walls and a ceiling, and Hermione's piano bench became one of two basket-shaped chairs.

Something sparkled on the floor where the stone circle had been. Luna picked it up, and Hermione saw that it was a necklace, with one large moonstone in a delicate gold filigree setting. Luna was staring at it with a curiously empty expression, as if she were entirely lost.

Hermione got up to look closer. “Did you ask the Room to make it?”

“It was my mother's,” Luna replied.

“It's lovely.”

“It was my mother's, and it was lost. And…now it is here.” There was a curiously shaky quality to Luna’s voice.

Hermione was excited. “A finding ritual! I've heard of them, but never seen one. I hope I didn't mess it up. Why didn't you tell me it was a ritual? I could have helped, or at least checked your calculations.”

Luna shook her head. “I did not intend to shape magic at all. I simply wished to play. I hoped to attract some Cloven Gumbies.”

“Dumbledore said, my first year, that music is a magic beyond all they teach here,” Hermione commented.

Luna’s brows momentarily contracted, and her mouth tightened. “His head is so very full,” she murmured.

“It must have been accidental magic, then. Perhaps that's why there was so much extra noise and light.”

Luna shook her head. “It didn't sound like accidental magic.”

“What do you mean? I'm sure I've heard of noisy accidental magic before.”

Luna blinked at her. “Not that kind of sound.”

That reply held more questions than answers, in Hermione's opinion. “What on earth…”

“Anyway, accidental magic is seated in the heart, and mine was not troubled,” Luna continued, as if Hermione had not spoken.

“But it still happened spontaneously. And it's your mother's necklace, so it wasn't me that did it. What were you thinking about?”

“I was playing, not thinking,” Luna replied.

“Like meditation,” said Hermione, “except…” She broke off, thinking. Meditation is empty, or at least quiet. Luna’s playing had involved too much thought, too much creativity, to really count as meditation. She had been so focused on creating and resolving each motif and melody. Hermione smiled as she recalled her mother playing piano, and her father discussing a new book he had read about work and focus and states of mind. “Not meditation. More like Flow,” Hermione concluded.

She looked up, and Luna was gazing at her calmly, so she continued. “There's a muggle writer who published a book a few years ago, called Flow. He talks about Flow as a state of absorption in an intrinsically rewarding task. Flow incorporates high levels of focus, challenge, and skill, and it's one of the best ways to work. I feel that way sometimes, when my research is coming together well.”

Luna blinked at her. “Meditation ought to shape magic, but it doesn't. It only shapes the mind.”

“Right, I've seen some of that research. Rhys Llefelys theorizes that meditation should work for spellcasting, but it needs another element. What if that element is challenge and skill?”

Luna smiled. She closed her eyes for a moment, and a cylinder of glass appeared around them, along with an assortment of colored markers. Luna picked up a coral-colored marker and began to write out the Arithmantic meditation model developed by Rhys Llefelys. Hermione grabbed a blue marker and started adding new equations, to represent the state of Flow and its effects on magic.

Luna erased parts and re-wrote others, expanding and incorporating their theories. Hermione, seeing the gaps in the equation set, generated an ever-changing three-dimensional model of their equations.

The two girls worked together, breaking down the theories of magic and building them anew, while the modeled equations danced around them.

  
**And there was light**


End file.
